Leveson Inquiry: Steve Coogan to give evidence to press standards

Steve Coogan, the comedian, is set to join other alleged victims of media
intrusion when he gives evidence to the press standards inquiry today.

Steve Coogan to give evidence to press standards Photo: REX

10:00AM GMT 22 Nov 2011

The actor is set to launch a new wave of criticism on the tabloid newspaper industry when he gives evidence to the Leveson Inquiry.

The comedian has already spoken out about hacking and the ''perils of the popular press''.

The Inquiry, sitting in central London, will also hear evidence today from former footballer Garry Flitcroft, Mary-Ellen Field, the former business adviser to supermodel Elle Macpherson and Margaret Watson, whose daughter Diane was stabbed to death at her Glasgow school.

The inquiry will also hear from actress Sienna Miller, Harry Potter author JK Rowling and missing Gerry McCann, father of missing Madeleine McCann, at a later date.

The first part of the inquiry is looking at the culture, practices and ethics of the press in general.

The second part, examining the extent of unlawful activities by journalists, will not begin until detectives have completed their investigation into alleged phone hacking and corrupt payments to police and any prosecutions have been concluded.

Last week Coogan wrote about his concerns on Britain's press in which he criticised the "more unscrupulous members of the tabloid press".

He wrote in The Guardian: ''We have an opportunity for a fundamental cultural change. It happened in the way MPs claim their expenses and it can happen with the more unscrupulous members of the tabloid press.

''How we achieve this is yet to be determined, but it is about ethics, common decency and treating people with respect - not press freedom.''

His evidence comes a day after the parents of murdered teenager Milly Dowler became the first witnesses to give evidence to the hearing.

The trigger for the inquiry, before Lord Justice Leveson, was the revelation that the now-defunct News of the World commissioned private detective Glenn Mulcaire to hack Milly's phone after she disappeared in 2002.

As well as listening to Milly's voicemails, the investigator is alleged to have deleted some of them to make room for new messages, falsely leading her family to believe she was still alive - but denies having done this.

Mulcaire was jailed along with the News of the World's former royal editor Clive Goodman in January 2007 after they admitted intercepting voicemail messages left on phones belonging to royal aides.

Hugh Grant, the actor also gave evidence to the inquiry yesterday, and suggested that the Mail on Sunday had hacked his phone before printing a ''bizarre, left-field'' story.

The newspaper issued a denial last night, saying that information had instead come from a freelance journalist.

Mr Grant said the story claimed that his relationship with then-girlfriend Jemima Khan was on the rocks because of his ''late night phone calls with a plummy-voiced studio executive''.

He said the story was untrue and he had not been able to think ''for the life of me'' what the source of the story could be.

The newspaper's spokesman said: ''The Mail on Sunday utterly refutes Hugh Grant's claim that they got any story as a result of phone hacking.

''In fact in the case of the story Mr Grant refers to, the information came from a freelance journalist who had been told by a source who was regularly speaking to Jemima Khan.''